Saturday, 14 January 2017

"European Democracy Under Stress" - Conference Programme

The Italian Politics Specialist Group is delighted to open the registration for its annual conference:

EUROPEAN
DEMOCRACY UNDER STRESS

13th-14th January 2017- Department of Cultures, Politics and Society
(DCPS), University of Turin

A conference organised by the Political Studies Association’s
Italian Politics and Anti-politics Specialist Groups, with the support of the
PSA Pushing the Boundaries Scheme, and the Faculdade de Ciencias Sociais e
Humanas, Universidade Nova De Lisboa

European democracies are under pressure.
The rise of alternative left and right political parties and new populist
parties, discontent with traditional ‘slow’ political processes and growing
preferences among citizens for internet and social media-driven movements and
the increasing success of ‘antipolitics’ rhetoric have seen politicians across
European liberal democracies struggle to retain their relevance in an
increasingly globalised, fast-paced social and economic world. Moreover,
European leaders are facing increasing difficulties to deal with a growing
confluence of crises, including an unprecedented influx of refugees, discontent
at harsh austerity measures imposed on EU member states, and more broadly
dissatisfaction with the European integration project. This is clearly
manifested in the growth of euro-sceptic parties and anti-EU feelings even in
traditionally ‘Europhile’ countries, and in the recent ‘Brexit’ referendum in
the UK. The dynamics and forms of these pressures are multidimensional and
compound: they have different roots and have taken different paths across
Europe, and yet they converge in challenging political structures and the very
institution of democracy.

The aim of this conference is to offer a
distinctive approach in capturing such complexity, inviting contributions from
scholars across Europe that will: reflect on the causes, symptoms, effects, and
long-term consequences of the so-called ‘democratic crisis’; develop explicitly
comparative insights into the European ‘democratic crisis’, within and
between countries as well as at the transnational ‘European’ level; offer an
opportunity to ‘redefine’, in the light of current changes and challenges, the
key concepts (e.g. anti-politics, politicisation/de-politicisation, populism,
political participation, and the very idea of ‘democracy’) underpinning the
debate on ‘democratic crisis’.

The conference will open with a keynote
address by Simona Piattoni (Professor of Politics at the University of
Trento, and President of SISP, the Italian Political Science Society),
entitled 'Revisiting democratic principles in times of heightened
interconnectedness'.

The event will include panels with papers
from international scholars, as well as a workshop on experiments of
deliberative democracy in Turin (‘A deliberative experience: two editions
of the Turin Deliberative Budget. Promises and pitfalls from different
democratic perspectives'), delivered byStefania Ravazzi
and Gianfraco Pomatto (members of the Department of Cultures, Politics
and Society at the University of Turin).

The conference will close with a roundtable entitled 'European Democracy Under Stress. Lessons from
comparative analysis'.

Panellist include Alfio Mastropaolo
(Professor of Political Science, University of Turin), Daniele Albertazzi
(Senior Lecturer in European Politics, University of Birmingham) and Anna
Masera (Journalist, editor-in-chief and public-editor, La Stampa; director
of the Master in Journalism, University of Turin).